Mark Wauck pointed out to me that Amy Chua of Tiger mother fame has written a lot about global economics and once wrote a piece for the Times of London developing her theme of “market dominant minorities,” pointing out that the disastrous privatization of Russia was carried out mostly by Jews.
Wauck says that American bankers also had their role in the privatization– Larry Summers– (you can read it about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Summers#Support_of_economist_Andrei_Shleifer)– and the neocons cheered the process on. Some of his notes to me:
“I doubt that Summers is a neocon… But my point was how the Russians view this whole episode–it has been a major national trauma for them, their country essentially taken over by rapacious adventurers with big US connections, all of it happening with US advice, etc. However, I absolutely guaran-damn-tee you that neocons HATE Russia, and probably for the “old feelings.” [going back to knowledge of pogroms]. That’s a big part of why we’re in Iraq and Central Asia and why we were supporting Georgia for NATO membership (with Israel training and supplying the Georgian “military”)–to guarantee EU access to Central Asian gas bypassing Russia. Go to the bank with that.
“As for Chua’s theories, I just don’t take that pretending that people aren’t driven for ostentatious success seriously. The conceptual framework for Chua’s book [World on Fire, about ethnic rivalries globally] is pretty simple. The idea revolves around what she calls “market dominant minorities.” They’re naturally hated by the native majorities, and she gives examples from all around the world. Her contention is that the new world economy has empowered these groups in a supercharged kind of way–like the Russian oligarchs, the Chinese in Indonesia and other east Asian countries, Lebanese etc., etc. She tries to claim that Israel is a market dominant minority in the Middle East, which i think is untenable–they’re an invading, colonial, imperial force and don’t control the economies in Muslim countries. Nor does she get into cultural differences among these minorities. It seems to me that one of the similarities is the tribal/clan structure of the minority groups, which keeps them at arms length from the locals. She does get into that. It’s an easy read.”
